Andrea Piehler

Andrea has experience working as a finance manager for more than 10 years. She studied business administration and Scandinavian studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin before she joined the finance department of Europe’s largest and most successful start-up incubator. Building on this knowledge, Andrea set up the finance department of various start-ups in the sustainability sector in the following years. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Andrea has been working for a project of the Flüchtlingshilfe Babelsberg e.V. (Refugee Aid Babelsberg). This organization buys urgently needed medical supplies , funded by donations, and transports them to Ukraine where they are made available to first responders. She also supported joint projects with Konvoi Drushba and Humanitarian Aid Potsdam.

Andrea speaks German, English and Swedish.

Anna Sevortian

Anna is the Executive Director of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum where she is responsible for the overall management, development, and representation of the organisation at all levels. Before joining the Forum, Anna worked as Russia Director at Human Rights Watch. She has over 20 years of experience in working on civil society and human rights in Europe and Eurasia. Anna was Galina Starovoitova Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights in Moscow, Russia. Over the years, she has contributed to 40 research and evaluation projects and publications in Russian and English. Anna holds a Mid-Career MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and a degree in journalism from Moscow State University. She is on the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe INGO Conference (Strasbourg), International Steering Committee of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (London), and Sakharov Center (Moscow). Anna speaks Russian, English, and German.

Evgeny Shtorn

Evgeny manages Araminta’s emergency funds for human rights defenders from Eastern Europe and Central Asia and coordinates international advocacy projects aimed at increasing mobility and protection for HRDs from all over the globe. Evgeny also represents Araminta on the members’ committee in the EUTRP (European Union Temporary Relocation Platform) – a network of 80+ NGOs which provide temporary relocation of HRDs. Prior to Araminta, Evgeny worked as a Social and Cultural Diversity Consultant collaborating with various institutions including the Irish Center for Human Rights (NUI Galway), the Equality Fund at Rethink Ireland, and the National Gallery of Ireland. Overall, Evgeny has been involved in human rights and LGBT advocacy for two decades. After having to flee persecution in Russia, he co-founded Queer Diaspora Ireland, a refugee-led initiative that supports LGBTIQ+ people in need of international protection in Ireland. For these efforts he was named GALA’s Person of the Year for 2020 by the National LGBT Federation of Ireland (NXF). Currently he is also a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki where he writes about violence against LGBTIQ+ people in Russia. Evgeny’s working languages are Russian, English and Spanish.

Jennifer Gaspar

Before founding Araminta, Jennifer was the Director for special programs for the CEELI Institute in Prague, where she managed a portfolio of programs focused on human rights and security including programs on the independence of defense attorneys, an emergency support and relocation program for activists and human rights defenders, and developing policy initiatives to benefit international human rights defenders. Her career includes 20 years of experience in NGO management, philanthropic advising, and organizational strategy, including 20 years working in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Former Soviet Union. She was a long-term consultant to the Oak Foundation’s International Human Rights Programme and is the former Director for the Fund for International Nonprofit Development (US). Jennifer is on the Board of PEP Watch (Prague), an advisory board member for Upsala Circus (St. Petersburg, Russia and Zeitz, Germany), and Board President for the Centre for International Protection (Strasbourg). Jennifer was a Fulbright Fellow in Hungary and is a human rights laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group. She holds a degree in international affairs from George Washington University (Washington, DC) and a Masters in Organisational Leadership from the University of San Francisco where she also pursued her doctoral studies. Jennifer speaks English, Russian, German, and Spanish.

Kateryna Chernii

Kateryna is a doctoral candidate at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam. Her doctoral thesis investigates the transformation of Ukrainian football and its elites after the collapse of the Soviet Union. She holds an MA in History and 20th-century Politics from the University of Jena (Germany) and was the recipient of the International Parliamentary Scholarship of the German Bundestag, and interned at the German Football Association. Kateryna speaks Ukrainian, German, Russian, English and basic Spanish.

Mikhail Tumasov

Mikhail is a human rights activist and civil society manager. He studied theology and pedagogy before working in the publishing industry as a commercial and logistical manager, and later became involved in fundraising and management for one of Russia’s largest LGBTQ+ NGOs in St. Petersburg. Mikhail was later elected chairman of the Russian LGBT Network, and has worked as an advisor and coordinator on global projects for human rights defenders and on combatting discrimination. In 2018-2019, Mikhail was a fellow at King’s College in London researching comparative LGBT history, and was a volunteer for Amnesty International’s Russia and Eurasia Regional Office (London Secretariat). In 2023 he was nominated to the Board of the German LGBT organization LSVD ( Der Lesben- und Schwulenverband in Deutschland). Mikhail speaks Russian, English, Polish, and German.

Nathalie Losekoot

Nathalie has worked for over 20 years in the human rights field, with a focus on freedom of expression and the Eurasia region, including through grant-making, international advocacy and organizational management. Prior to joining Araminta, Nathalie supported organizations working on human rights advocacy, gender equality and climate justice including in closed civil societies in the Eurasia region, through her position as Program Officer with the Europe and Central Asia Program of Open Society Foundations. She is a long-term trustee for a small UK-based NGO, Reach all Women in War (RAW), which annually presents the Anna Politkovskaya Award to a woman human rights defender from a conflict zone who, like Anna, stands up for the victims of conflict, often at great personal risk. Nathalie has previously held positions at the Sigrid Rausing Trust, Article 19, where she used her interest and experience from working at the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), a move she made after she worked for Amnesty International as campaigner on Eastern Europe. Nathalie has a master’s degree in Russian Studies from the University of Leiden and European Environmental Management from the University of Amsterdam. She speaks Dutch, (Swiss) German, English, Russian and French and is based in London.

Oksana Shchur

Oksana has worked as a curator and project manager for many years – she is a connector of people and ideas.  She curated the main program of the Kyiv Book Arsenal festival, one of the biggest book events in Ukraine, and realized many international projects connected with Ukrainian art and culture, including for festivals in the UK and EU. As a publicist, her many essays, reviews and interviews with Ukrainian media have been translated into Polish, Czech, German and English. Now, literature is her hobby, and she believes that culture matters. At Araminta, Oksana manages a hub

for activists and human rights defenders from Ukraine, which aims to increase their professional capacity as well as networking and community-building.

She speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English, and German.

Olesia Vynogradska

Olesia Vynogradska moved to Berlin in March 2022. Prior to that she was employed as a corporate lawyer in Kyiv, Ukraine. She holds her MA in Law from the Kyiv Shevchenko University. Her work with the Ukrainian Activist Nest project is her first job in Germany. Olesia speaks Ukrainian, Russian and German.